My 1st Yaqona Ceremony

Guests are expected to enter a village for the first time with a gift of kava bought in town, for the village chief/hosts. The herb kava kava, which can be bought in health food stores in the U.S., is derived from this grounded plant that also makes the drink seen here. It is considered something sacred in Fijian tradition and is known for lifting spirits/reducing stress. Maybe that's the secret to Fijians' typical friendly ways & their "no worries" saying.

At a typical yaqona ceremony, people are seated in a group on mats and will drink kava from the communal cup passed around. This is only after prayers are said in Fijian for a call & response, and one must clap 3 times before drinking a cupful of it when it's your turn...Fijians seem to love the taste and always inquire about visitor's perceptions of it. It leaves a tingly feeling on the tongue but I never drank enough to feel any effects of it. It seems capable of putting one in another state of mind based on what I heard from others...

On my 2nd day in Fiji here, my host Judith was taking me to visit the Namatakula village school when we passed through and stopped by these groups during their annual village fundraising, known as Namatakula Day, which included kava drinking. We stopped at a men's group, a youth group (seen here), & a women's group, all having separate activities going on. Simon and Judith are amongst the heads of the village and are expected to contribute more than others. I added to their funds myself when Judith made the point of saying I "could contribute if (I'd) like..."

As we were about to cross the road to the school, we passed this man grinding kava into a powder for preparation of the drink.

There was kava drinking with the Fijian musicians and singers available every evening during dinnertime on the Jean Michele Cousteau Resort deck. From there, we also had a village visit with some of the formalities of it on my second day. The most traditional yaqona ceremony I witnessed, though, was at another Fijian village on Taveuni Island. It was a stop on the Tui Tai Cruise and the formal kava procedures were followed by singing, drumming, & the simultaneous traditional warrior dance show. I'll be posting more photos of the latter.